City Manager Given Warning By Op Council

OAKLAND PARK — City Manager Richard Clark lost an informal vote of confidence Monday night when the City Council gave him 30 days to improve his job performance or face the possibility of being fired.

Council member James Loss and Mayor Robert Pisano wanted Clark to have two months in which to show some progess, but the council voted 3-2 in setting Sept. 3 as the date when it will next evaluate him.

``At that time we`ll decide what to do,`` said council member Caryl Stevens.

The council could choose to keep the city manager on the job, but even Clark privately admitted after Monday`s meeting that the council was asking him to accomplish too much in too little an amount of time.

``Sixty days maybe, but not 30,`` said Clark, Oakland Park`s city manager since April 1984.

Pisano praised Clark for his honesty and integrity, but council members Mary Laveratt, H. Keneth Powell and Stevens all said Clark has had ample opportunity and warning to show the council he can handle the job.

Eight months ago, Clark survived an attempt by the council to fire him, and the issues then were the same as the ones mentioned Monday: poor communication with council members and an overall lack of leadership.

``I haven`t heard an issue tonight that we didn`t hear eight months ago,`` said Powell. ``If a change is going to be made, we need to have the time to get somebody on board.``

In a meeting that lasted nearly four hours, the council evaluated Clark`s performance in office. Stevens, Laveratt and Powell all said Clark was doing a less than adequate job.

Loss and Pisano, however, defended Clark by saying that while he made need to improve, he also needed at least two months in which to implement any new plans or changes.

``I really believe this council has not made a wise decision,`` said Loss.

Clark, a low-key administrator, worked for nine years as the Township Manager in Maple Shade, N.J. The former council majority hired him 16 months ago. He earns $43,000 annually.

Before evaluating Clark on Monday, the council, by a 3-2 vote, directed City Attorney D.J. Doody to file a petition for rehearing on the Backstage Lounge case with the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach.

Two weeks ago, the appeals court overturned a Broward Circuit judge`s ruling closing the nude nightclub at 4245 N. Federal Highway. Doody told the council he didn`t think the city had much chance of winning a new hearing.